Mark L. Stout Consulting is an all-purpose transportation consulting firm, specializing in finance, program management, and legislative and DOT policy. Our company has served public agencies and non-profits, big and small, all across the nation. Mark is widely-recognized as an expert whose years of experience can help organizations to break through gridlock and deliver transformative projects and innovative community enhancements.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Congrats to Bruce Speight, WISPIRG, and the Coalition for
More Responsible Transportation for going nose to nose with Wisconsin DOT over
the agency’s proposed widening of I-94 in Milwaukee.It’s a bad project, out of touch with the times and the
place, and deserves to be replaced by something better.

My role has been to offer a real alternative for the
something better: “The Rehab/Transit Option: A Better Solution for Milwaukee’s
East-West Corridor.”The Coalition
formally launched the option at a City Hall press conference today (links to
the press release, the full report, and a map of the transit plan all available
on WISPIRG’s website here).
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story, with video, slide show, and link to paper here.

The two pieces of the proposal are pretty straightforward.The Rehab part would replace WisDOT’s
unnecessary widening with a rehabilitation project.The Draft Environmental Impact Statement actually concedes
that most of the infrastructure, safety, and operational issues on the highway
can be addressed through a rehab option.The Transit piece proposes a new, high-quality, rapid transit system in
the corridor that would provide long-term, sustainable mobility, much more in
keeping with the needs of a 21st-century city.At this stage of the game, the transit
plan is very much conceptual, with detailed planning and engineering stages
needed.But hopefully the concept
plan will show Milwaukee and southeast Wisconsin citizens how major origins and
destinations can be better linked by a modern transit system than by an 8-lane
(in some places 10-lane) urban freeway!

Monday, December 1, 2014

Alas, those of us who struggle to reignite a sense of
purpose and optimism in this country, and especially those of us in the
transportation field, took another hit recently with the announcement of the
end of the Columbia Pike Streetcar project in Arlington, VA (story here).County leaders took stock after the
re-election of an anti-streetcar member of the county board (his initial
election to the board in a special election was considered a fluke – my story
here) and threw in the towel.

This was a real setback for smart growth advocates.Arlington is the poster child for
transit-oriented development – at least in the Northeast – and Columbia Pike
looked to be an ideal setting for a streetcar that would promote transit,
leverage sustainable economic development, and enhance the region’s investment
in the Metro system (to which the streetcar would link).

No doubt the streetcar project had issues, being big and
complex, and expensive, and perhaps just too heavy a lift for a small
jurisdiction (227,000 people). And
when it comes to funding projects like this, the federal government is nowhere
to be found, doling out money to only a handful of projects around the
country.At this rate, it will
take us a century or more to build the projects that we ought to put in the
ground in one generation.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Bad news: Rush Holt, New Jersey congressman and scientist,
is wrapping up his Capitol Hill career.

Good news: Rush will be the new CEO of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science! (story here)

Now that the Flat Earth Society has a working majority in
both houses of Congress, we can only hope that Rush Holt will be able to use
his new platform to argue persuasively for science, reason, creativity, and
optimism.This is clearly
his platform – including seeing the need for imaginative new thinking in
transportation! (see some nice quotes in the linked story)

We continue in this country to spend far too much money on
20th century solutions to 20th century problems and very
little on developing and implementing 21st century solutions to 21st
century problems.Let’s hope Rush
can give us a boost!

FYI, Rush Holt (who is not now, but has been my congressman)
is really a plasma physics guy, not a spaceflight guy, but “My congressman is a rocket scientist” has to be one of
the best political bumper stickers of all time!

Friday, November 7, 2014

The latest climate change report from the IPCC (Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change) scientists is out and has the usual grim
warnings.I read with interest the
“summary for policymakers” of the final report.Unfortunately, it’s a difficult summary (22 pages of dense
text and 18 pages of complicated tables and charts) and probably not much use
to policymakers.All the pieces of
the 2014 status report can be found here, including a set of “headline
statements,” which are a bit easier to follow.

The important takeaways (from my point of view):

·Yes, things are continuing to get worse.

·The good news, mitigation works: “Substantial
emissions reductions over the next few decades can reduce climate risks in the
21st century and beyond, increase prospects for effective adaptation, reduce
the costs and challenges of mitigation in the longer term, and contribute to
climate-resilient pathways for sustainable development.”

·The bad news, it’s still going to get worse:
“Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and
long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the
likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and
ecosystems.”

·How urgent is mitigation?“Delaying additional mitigation to 2030
will substantially increase the challenges associated with limiting warming
over the 21st century.”(How is
that looking after Tuesday’s election results?)

Although the document doesn’t offer much for policymakers (I
don’t think that was their mandate), it does suggest some guideposts for
further policy work.For instance,
they note that mitigation strategies and adaptation strategies can often yield
“co-benefits.”Examples: “(i)
improved energy efficiency and cleaner energy sources, leading to reduced
emissions of health-damaging climate-altering air pollutants; (ii) reduced
energy and water consumption in urban areas through greening cities and
recycling water; (iii) sustainable agriculture and forestry; and (iv)
protection of ecosystems for carbon storage and other ecosystem services.”There are also, however, tradeoffs that
may need to be made.

There is no attention paid to transportation, other than the
barest mention that very large investments in “low carbon electricity supply
and energy efficiency” in transportation and other sectors will be vital to any
mitigation strategy.(This fits
with my view that electrifying the transportation system is job number one.)

Unfortunately, the chances for an educated public policy debate
on climate change in this country are bleak and have become bleaker.Nevertheless, there is a lot of urgent
work to be done, and the latest IPCC report documents both the gravity of the
problem and the size of the gap we in the transportation policy world need to
close between the facts of climate change and workable, real-world policies and
programs.

Monday, November 3, 2014

King of Prussia – if you don’t know it – is one of those
regional supermall/supersprawl sites, in this case 18 miles from center city
Philadelphia.The good news
is that small initial steps are being taken to tame the sprawl and make this
mess of an area a bit more transit-accessible, walkable, and mixed-use.

A recent panel discussion in Philadelphia (“Crowning the New
King of Prussia”) provided an update on key happenings (press story here):

·A Draft EIS is moving forward for an extension
of the Norristown High-Speed Line rapid transit service to King of Prussia,

·The local municipality, Upper Merion Township,
has rezoned a core area for mixed-used development, with real prospects for new
residential development (currently the vast majority of the 50,000 people who
work in the area commute by car from neighboring towns), and

·The local business improvement district has
committed to ameliorating the “everything looks like a highway” appearance of
the place with some landscaping, road diets, and programmed open spaces.

Unfortunately the transit line – if all goes well! – won’t
be in revenue service for another 9 years.SEPTA, the transit agency, now has a good supply of state
money from the recent revenue package, but still needs to compete for very
scarce federal New Starts money.We as a nation just plain spend far too little on new transit.Even when money is available, it takes
an excruciatingly long time to plan, design, and build projects, even when they
provide enormous environmental and economic benefits.

The panel discussion included direct comparisons with the
Tysons redevelopment plans in northern Virginia.The Tysons complex is twice as big as King of Prussia and
the planned redevelopment and Metro extension are far more extensive.But at least King of Prussia is making
a start!

Congrats to PenTrans (Pennsylvanians for Transportation
Solutions), who sponsored the program, one of a long series of events they have
held to educate opinion leaders and promote sustainable transportation
(PenTrans website here; full disclosure: I serve on the PenTrans board).

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Self driving cars seemed like science fiction not so long
ago….now they seem well on the way.

A story in Popular Science (here) points out that 6 major
auto manufacturers have officially put autonomous vehicles in their research
and development programs.And
Google continues to dazzle us with what their test cars can do.

But once again Elon Musk and Tesla are way out in front in
putting new technology on the road.Tesla (see story here) says their Autopilot technology is still a long
way from actual driverless cars.But new Model S cars have “forward radar, 12 long range ultrasonic
sensors positioned to sense 16 feet around the car in every direction at all
speeds, a forward looking camera, and a high precision, digitally controlled
electric assist braking system.”As the software comes online, the Tesla will be able to keep in its lane,
change lanes with a tap of the turn signal, slow or speed up to stay within
speed limits and keep safe distances, and so on.Very soon, according to Musk, the Tesla owner will be able
to summon the car, which will open the garage and drive up to you, already
heated and with your favorite radio station on.

Maybe not self-driving but getting pretty darn close!

And in the transportation world, we still need to figure out
how to make this rapidly developing technology work with our infrastructure and
regulatory systems.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Wisconsin has reached a critical crossroads in
transportation.In one direction
(continuing the metaphor) lies the way of widening freeways, starving transit,
and enabling sprawl.In the other
direction?Repairing the legacy
system, building a real 21st century system, and meeting the real
challenges and needs of the future.

Leading the way toward the 21st century solution
is WISPIRG, which has put out a series of reports pointing out the changed
travel patterns of Wisconsinites (especially Millennials) and advocating that
WisDOT take the bundle of money it is planning to spend on four megahighway
projects and put it to better use (see their Fork in the Road report here).One of these projects (full disclosure: I am helping them
out on this one) is a major widening – including a double-decker section – of I-94
in Milwaukee.A real 1980s
solution!

Fortunately, WISPIRG is getting traction in their
campaign.See director Bruce
Speight’s interview on the state’s top talk show here.

Congrats to Bruce and WISPIRG for providing a much-need “turn
signal!”

Monday, September 29, 2014

Those of us involved in New Jersey transportation suffered a
tough blow this weekend with the tragic death of John Sheridan, former
Commissioner of Transportation, and his wife Joyce in a fire at their home.

For me, John was a friend, a mentor, a standard of
excellence.He was one of the most
all-round competent people I have ever known, and demonstrated that public
service could be a noble, exciting, and rewarding pursuit, despite its many
frustrations.

I worked with John very closely on two projects back in the
day: a battle with the feds over designated truck routes in the state (doesn’t
seem like a big deal today, but was then) and (better known) the birth of the
New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund.One of my contributions to the latter project was to suggest calling it
the “New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund” rather than the original working
title of “New Jersey Transportation System Improvement, Operations, and
Maintenance Fund” – although technically, at least in the minds of some, it wasn’t
really a trust fund at all.John
agreed with me.

In these and other projects I was continually impressed with
his leadership.He was always
composed and thoughtful, a master of both strategy and tactics, accommodating
when he could be, hard-nosed when he had to be, and always a gentleman.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

I recently mentioned that New Jersey is getting new Tesla
Superchargers for electric vehicles (link here), providing a key north-south
network link.Pennsylvania also
has a new EV corridor – from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh – installed this summer
(story here).

Pennsylvania’s new corridor was implemented through a
public-private partnership, with state funding support for fast chargers operating
at Sheetz convenience stores.The
locations (Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg, State College, Altoona, Blairsville) provide
fast charging along a corridor parallel to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which
hopefully will have its own fast chargers soon.The Sheetz chargers use the Chademo design, meaning they
work with the Nissan Leaf and other Japanese-design electric vehicles.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Tesla has reached agreement with the New Jersey Turnpike
Authority to install Superchargers at two rest areas on the turnpike, on Tesla’s
nickel (story here).This is a big step forward
for those of us trying to encourage the building of fast chargers on major
highways, especially in the densely populated Northeast.Most EV travel is local, and owners can
charge up at home overnight or at work during the day.But when you need to take an EV any
distance, you need to recharge.Conveniently spaced “fast” chargers (as in half an hour, not several
hours) can make these longer distance trips doable.
Of course Tesla uses one of three incompatible fast charging systems (head
slap), but will make some of their infrastructure available to the other
systems.Tesla is the only group so
far really committed to intercity travel.

New Jersey, as a “corridor” state, really needs to be in the
game, and the Turnpike is a key link in the whole Northeast Megalopolis
transportation system.Last year
saw the first (Nissan and Japanese EV friendly) fast charger to be installed in
New Jersey (my posting here).Let’s
hope there are more to come!

BTW, why the long time in approving Tesla’s no-cost
deal?You would have to appreciate
byzantine New Jersey politics to understand.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

In a surprise announcement (to put it mildly) New Jersey
Governor Chris Christie has just nominated former DOT commissioner Jamie Fox to
take his old job back (story here).Fox is a Democrat with a capital “D” so I don’t think he was on anyone’s
short list (or long list for that matter) for the job.This will keep New Jersey’s political
establishment buzzing for a while!

Fox was a fair, thoughtful, and decisive leader at NJDOT,
and I have no doubt folks there will be happy to have him back.Perhaps more importantly for the long
run, the fact that he is (1) a Democrat and (2) a consummate political
tactician suggests that maybe the governor will put forward a serious plan to
get bipartisan support for replenishing the state’s Transportation Trust Fund –
which will need a tax increase of some sort.The Trust Fund is now leveraged to the hilt and by June of
next year the revenue going into it will no longer be able to back new bonds or
to provide pay-as-you-go funding.

Perhaps coincidentally, the governor’s announcement came two
days after a major publicity launch by a coalition, Forward NJ, that has been
set up to promote Trust Fund renewal (link here).

Monday, September 15, 2014

A new real estate study lists the top zip codes for college-educated
Millennials.Where are the top
two?......The Arlington, Virginia neighborhoods of Clarendon, Court House,
Virginia Square, Ballston, and Rosslyn (Arlington story here).Do these names sound familiar?They are also the names of stations on
the Metro Orange Line and showcases for successful transit oriented
development.A coincidence?I think not!

The Redfin Research report (here) doesn’t talk about
transportation, but a quick look at the list suggests, unsurprisingly, that
Millennials are clustering in areas where they can use non-auto means of
getting around (transit, walking, biking).More evidence that we need to reorient our thinking on urban
mobility!

Friday, August 8, 2014

In most towns in this country we don’t do a very good job of
prioritizing bicycle transportation – despite the many benefits of a bigger
mode share for bikes.The bike
share systems springing up around the country have been a great success, but
the rest of what passes for bike infrastructure usually consists of some green
paint and “share the road” signs at best.(Sharing the road often meaning sharing a potholed free-for-all with
18-wheelers, racing taxi drivers, and drivers talking on cellphones!)

Thanks to Gizmodo (here) for showing us the latest from
Copenhagen, where good planning and design really work for bikes.Some of these solutions are relatively expensive,
like bike-only bridges.Others
harness relatively inexpensive technology.I especially like the “green wave” of LED lights letting
bicyclists know they are moving at a pace that will give them a green signal at
upcoming traffic lights.Lots more
to do here in the U.S.!

Monday, August 4, 2014

The impact of Pennsylvania’s Act 89, raising new
transportation revenue from motor fuels, is beginning to be felt.DVRPC – the Philadelphia area MPO – has
just added $10.5 Billion in new investments to their long-range plan (story
here)!

The new revenue is split roughly in half between highways
and transit.The transit piece
will allow SEPTA (the regional operator) to get a little beyond the massive
need for system preservation and actually add a couple of extensions.One of these, the extension of the
Norristown High-Speed Line to the King of Prussia mall complex, could
ultimately have real impact on land use and mobility issues (see comparison to
Tysons Corner here).This just
scratches the surface of what we really need to do to build a real 21st
century transportation system in the next 25 years, but at least it’s a start.

On the highway side, half of the funding will go for
bridges.Pennsylvania has the
dubious distinction of leading the nation in structurally deficient bridges,
and PennDOT is aggressively moving forward to attack the problem. The highway side also includes expanded bike/ped funding.

What is noteworthy, as I have mentioned before, is that this
revenue growth has been achieved in a state with a Republican governor and
legislature.This should be enough
to challenge stereotypes and to encourage vigorous action in other states and
even (we have to say “even”) at the federal level.

There are many factors behind Pennsylvania’s step forward,
but a major one is leadership.There were many leaders involved, including Governor Corbett, PennDOT
Secretary Schoch, former governor Rendell, and others.But first prize undoubtedly goes to
State Senator John Rafferty, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, who
shepherded the bill from inception to signing.His explanation for his commitment to the bill?:transportation is a core function of
government, and we need to fix it.Refreshing.

Monday, July 28, 2014

New metro lines don’t open very often in this country, so
it’s exciting to have a major addition to one of our most successful
systems.The Washington Metro
Silver Line started revenue service on Saturday, with its first weekday
operation today (story here).The
route runs through suburban Virginia, linking up with the existing Orange Line
to carry passengers into Washington DC.Ultimately the Silver Line will reach all the way to Dulles Airport (the
older, closer-in Reagan National already has a Metro stop) but the big
achievement for this segment is bringing rapid transit to Tysons Corner, a
massive complex of shopping malls and suburban sprawl.Both the developers and planners have
decided that Tysons Corner needs to have a new lease on life – more mixed-use
and more transit accessible.If it
works, this could be an iconic turnaround (watch for upcoming Norristown High
Speed Line access to the King of Prussia mall complex in suburban Philadelphia
in a few years).

There are some unresolved issues with the Silver Line.Some of the stations are plunked into
low-density areas that need a lot of work before they reach anything like the
concentration we see at Ballston or Bethesda or Silver Spring.More critically, at a system level, the
Silver Line essentially serves as a branch of the Orange Line.Not a problem for most Orange Line
riders, but those beyond East Falls Church will find service drastically
reduced.The long-term solution
(hopefully medium-term) is a new tunnel under the Potomac, bringing more
capacity to the core area and relieving congestion on the Orange and Silver
lines (see Greater Greater Washington’s story on the proposed “loop” line
here.)

Congratulations to Rich Sarles and company for (so far) a
smooth rollout of a major Metro line!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

NJ TRANSIT’s River Line light rail service is a bit of an
oddity.Conceived for reasons
immersed in New Jersey politics, connecting Trenton and Camden along a 35-mile
route, it is more like the “interurban” lines of a century ago than the usual
urban light rail.

The River Line continues to grow in ridership and, after a
slow start, is beginning to show signs of encouraging the sustainable economic
development we want to see.

The opportunity for the future?Transit Oriented Development.And in some locations (thanks to the Center for Neighborhood
Development for the term) Cargo Oriented Development.

The photo below shows the Florence River Line station, which
is located in the middle of a growing industrial park.Putting transit and industry together
can work (see story here).The
ideal combo?A planned center with
multimodal goods movement, high-tech 21st century manufacturing,
road/rail/water accessibility, and transit access.Oh yes, and electrified local delivery vehicles to further
reduce carbon footprint.

It can happen in Florence and Roebling and some other places
along the River Line, and at potentially many locations in the northeast and
rust belt.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

This story from the southwest of England may not actually
record the oldest potholes known to man, but it does remind us of how pervasive
the Roman roadway network was, and how sophisticated it was in design.Those of us who are infrastructure aficionados
will have no difficulty appreciating the importance of that network in
supporting a level of travel, economic wellbeing, and quality of life not seen
again in Europe for 1500 years or so after the fall of the Roman Empire.I suppose one could also draw
conclusions about the failure of the Roman roads and their linkage to the fall
of the empire, but for now let’s just be reminded of the remarkable story of
Roman technology, new chapters of which continue to be revealed by
archaeologists on a regular basis.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

The Country Club Plaza – Kansas City’s classic and elegant
shopping district – has some charming pedestrian spaces, with fountains,
murals, brick sidewalks, riverside walks, and yes mermaids and penguins (see
below).

Unfortunately, as I noted on a recent visit, automobiles
rule the streets, and pedestrian signals are so inadequate and confusing that
people seem mainly to dart across the pavement whenever and wherever they spot
an opening.Some “complete streets”
planning would move the Plaza up a notch in quality of life!(Also missing: rapid transit. See
here.)

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Construction has at last begun on a starter segment of the
Kansas City streetcar line (website here).The good news is that at least something approaching modern
transit has been started in one of the nation’s largest metros lacking rapid
transit.Unfortunately, it’s not
nearly what’s needed and even this half-measure is controversial and may fail
(background to controversy here).And although there are many high-quality activity centers along the
route (Union Station, Crown Center, Country Club Plaza, UMKC) the streetrunning
cars will only come close to many of them and will travel slowly, in mixed
traffic.

Country Club Plaza is a terrific urban, mixed-use,
transit-ready destination, but the streetcar will be a critical few blocks away
from the center (below).And who
knows when it will come?It’s not
on the starter segment.

Monday, June 30, 2014

Electrifying the transportation system (which I believe is
both needed and happening) will have lots of pieces to it.One of these is using solar power where
possible to operate train stations and other facilities.One recent success story is the
Blackfriars railway bridge and station in central London.The bridge over the Thames has been
roofed with solar panels as part of a much bigger network upgrade (story
here).

If they can get solar power even in sun-starved London, can’t
we do better in the US?

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Every year representatives of the state DOTs of the Northeast
states (and assorted interested folks like me) gather to hear panels, exchange
information, and socialize.This
is the annual meeting of NASTO (Northeast Association of State Transportation
Officials), one of four regional groups in the US.It’s not only a great place to exchange news and views but a
great place to get a sense of what’s happening in state transportation circles.This year’s conference was held in
beautiful Portsmouth, NH and hosted by New Hampshire DOT (great job NHDOT
folks!).

Some impressions:

Climate Change –
This topic may not be taken seriously in some places, but it is a huge concern
among Northeast DOTs.A session on
Climate Change Resilience and Sustainability, chaired by Sue Minter of Vermont
(where Irene made believers of just about everybody) demonstrated some big
advances.Kate Zyla of Georgetown
Climate Center gave an update on the work of the Transportation and Climate
Initiative (website here).If
you’re not familiar with TCI, it’s a remarkable collaborative effort of the
transportation, energy, and environment agencies of the 11 Northeast states and
DC.(I am not impartial, having a
bit of a paternal interest, as I helped facilitate getting the group started a
couple of years ago.)Another
remarkable collaborative effort is being undertaken by 50 climate scientists
and transportation engineers in the northeast.Jennifer Jacobs of the University of New Hampshire gave a
briefing on the Infrastructure and Climate Network (ICNet, website here) which
is sponsoring workshops, webinars, and pilot projects that connect high-level
scientific findings on climate change and extreme weather events with practical
engineering design guidelines.Niek
Veraart of the Louis Berger Group showcased some innovative new projects for
sustainability in Hoboken, NJ, and Staten Island and Long Island. The concern
for resiliency in these places, of course, was prompted by the flooding caused
by Sandy.Mike Meyer of Parsons
Brinckerhoff gave an update on the new National Climate Assessment and some
other new reports that continue to expand our knowledge of the science and the
range of possible responses.At a
more practical level, a panel on Storm Coordination demonstrated how seriously
the operations and maintenance folks are preparing for future extreme weather
events.A much talked about
touchstone for all these discussions was the recent New York Times story
reporting on how the Northeast states have managed to reduce emissions and
increase economic growth at the same time (here).

Northeast Corridor
– Another topic of special interest to the region is the future of the
Northeast Corridor rail spine.Chronically underfunded, stuck in an organizational nightmare, despised
by a majority in the House of Representatives – and yet perhaps the biggest key
to transportation and economic development in the Northeast.Mitch Warren, of the Northeast Corridor
Commission, set up by Congress to make recommendations for the future, gave an
update.Brett Taylor, of Delaware,
gave the perspective of states on the corridor, who continue to invest heavily
in improvements from their own resources.Outlook?A final report is
due this year.We’ll see what
happens.Rich Davey of
Massachusetts gave a peek at one key opportunity.MassDOT hopes to significantly expand South Station in
Boston, with new tracks, more platforms, and significant joint development
opportunities.And Rich says these
improvements will speed up service from Back Bay to South Station, the slowest
mile on the whole Corridor.

Freight – There
was a good panel on freight, but I’ll just mention two key takeaways from the
presentation by Louis Renjel of CSX.First, coal traffic is way down (confirming what looks to be a permanent
decline), but the railroad has been able to compensate by increasing intermodal
traffic.Second, CSX is changing
its network from a corridor model to a hub-and-spoke model, borrowed from UPS
and FedEx.Both trends are
important – and encouraging – for transportation and land use planners.

Funding –
Surprisingly, there was little talk of funding problems at this
conference.Why?I think partially because almost half
of the states in the region have gotten funding packages through their
legislatures in the past couple of years.More to do, but still a pretty good track record – and at a time when
pundits in Washington say nobody will support gas tax increases!Speaking of Washington, Sen. Jeanne
Shaheen gave a synopsis of the situation in Congress.She attempted to put a positive spin on the chances for
MAP-21 extension, but without any real evidence to give much hope (and this was
a day before Eric Cantor went down, which I think makes our chances even
worse).Two Shaheen statements to
comment on:“Failure is not an
option.”Agree completely!“We need to be creative.”Half agree.Yes, we need to be creative to design and build a 21st
century transportation system and an appropriate long-term funding system.No, we don’t need to be creative to
solve the immediate (say, 5-year) funding problem.We just need the votes to raise the bloody gas tax!

Performance
management – The DOTs of Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire explained in
some detail their work in developing robust performance management systems in
their agencies, including much work in agreeing on common performance
measures.The content is too
complicated to get into here, but a very important takeaway is the conclusion
all three states have come to that good performance management increases
confidence in their legislatures and their publics and leads to more
investment!

Memorial Bridge –
This new lift bridge, connecting New Hampshire and Maine, is the pride and joy
of New Hampshire DOT, the lead agency, and they took every opportunity to show
off the impressive and innovative engineering achievements in designing and
building it.We can build great
things in this country!

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

I-495, the interstate bypass of Wilmington, Delaware is
closed down now due to a very problematic bridge (story here).

Since I have occasion to travel on this road frequently (the
last time being the morning of the day the bridge problem was discovered and
the road closed!), I can sympathize with DelDOT’s challenge in getting this
heavily traveled roadway (90,000 AADT) back into service.

Fortunately, there are alternatives: I-95 through downtown Wilmington,
the New Jersey Turnpike, I-295 (also on the New Jersey side of the river), and
lesser roads.Amtrak and SEPTA
also provide excellent service through the area for trips that can be switched
to rail.The trick is to keep
travelers informed and direct them to alternatives.The I-495 problem is a reminder of the importance of
redundancy in our systems – not just for natural calamities, but also for
all-too-common infrastructure failures.